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This event is a part of IWP's Intermarium Lecture Series. Three cases of Polish captivity in years 1918 – 1924: Galician Ukrainians, “Petlura’s” Ukrainians and Bolsheviks – a comparative study About the lecture: Just after Poland had regained its independence, 3 wars with her neighbors ensued. The Ukrainian war in the Eastern Galicia. Then a conflict with other Ukrainians – this time from Dnipro Ukraine – in the territory of Volhynia. And finally, the conflict between Poland and Soviet Russia when the Red Army entered present-day Western Belarussian lands. One of the outcomes of those conflicts was the presence of thousands of prisoners-of-wars and internees in Poland; either captured on the frontline or interned by Polish military authorities on the charge of being a threat to newly created Polish state. During this lecture, a new approach to the problem of their captivity will be presented. Mr. Weglewicz will try to compare the three groups of POWs mentioned above. First, the approach of the Polish military authorities to all three groups will be presented. Then, he will analyze other topics, such as material conditions in the camps, alimentation/hunger, sanitary conditions and the death rates. Finally, the fate of the POWs after release from the camps also will be moved. The lecture has been based on archival resources from various archives, including Central Military Archive in Warsaw, Central State Historical Archive in Lviv and Central Archive of Supreme Bodies of Power and Administration in Kyiv, as well as newspapers from that era and the literature on the subject. About the speaker: Wiktor Weglewicz is a PhD candidate at the Jagiellonian University in Cracow, Poland. In 2018 he received a grant “Etiuda 6” for research for his PhD thesis from Polish National Science Center. Part of it is presently carrying out at the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute. He also received a Visegrad Fund scholarship (at the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in Kyiv, 2017), and twice – European Union Erasmus scholarships (University of Florence, 2012-2013, and Charles University in Prague, 2015-2016). His scientific interests are centered around the cases of prisoners-of-wars and internees in Poland, 1918 – 1924 as well as Ukrainian prisoners-of-wars and internees in the countries of East – Central Europe, 1914 – 1924. He authored several articles, published in Poland, Ukraine and Russia; also, he has presented the results of his researches at various conferences in Cracow, Warsaw, Kyiv, Lviv, Kharkiv, Moscow and Sankt – Petersburg.
About the Lecture: International law prohibits the recruitment, use, financing and training of mercenaries. Mercenaries do not enjoy the rights of armed combatants such as to be treated as prisoners of war pursuant to Geneva Convention Norms. Notably, the Russian Criminal Code provides that the recruitment, training, financing, or supplying of mercenaries, and also the use of them in armed conflicts or hostilities is a crime. Nonetheless, the Russian Government has deployed private organizations such as the Wagner Group to advance its foreign policy goals in Ukraine, Central African Republic, Mozambique, Syria, Sudan, Venezuela, and elsewhere. Sometimes these forces play a decisive role in shifting the battlefield or political balance in limited conflicts. The Wagner Group and similar organizations are now engaged in supporting friendly regimes, securing rights to raw materials, and undermining certain governments. It is important that US National Security Managers not exaggerate the effectiveness of these forces when determining appropriate policies to pursue. In this lecture, IWP Adjunct Professor Ethan S. Burger will discuss the practical domestic Russian and international consequences of its outsourcing and/or privatizing these traditional state functions. About the Speaker: Ethan S. Burger is a Washington-D.C.-based international attorney and educator with a background in cybersecurity, transnational financial crime, and Russian legal matters. He has been a full-time faculty member at the American University (School of International Service — Transnational Crime Prevention Center) and the University of Wollongong (Australia) (Faculty of Law — Centre for Transnational Crime Prevention), and as well as an Adjunct Professor at the Georgetown University Law Center and Washington College of Law. He has taught about cybersecurity as a Visiting Professor at Vilnius University on a grant from the Fulbright Foundation and will be teaching a course during the Fall Semester at IWP on the International Law Governing Cyber Operations. Mr. Burger earned his J.D. at the Georgetown University Law Center, A.B. from Harvard University, and obtained a Certificate in Cybersecurity Strategy from Georgetown University. He will be teaching a course about the international law governing cyber-operations at the IWP during the Spring 2020 Semester.
This event is sponsored by the IWP’s Student Veterans Association. About the Lecture: Ms. Diane Foley will discuss her personal account of her son, James W. Foley, an American freelance journalist who was taken hostage in Syria in 2012, tortured and executed by ISIS in 2014. Ms. Foley will explore how Jim aspired to moral courage and how it could inform the United States’ hostage policy. In light of Pearl Harbor Day as a reminder of the need for constant vigilance, she will discuss how having a well-thought-out hostage policy will minimize risk to American citizens. About the Speaker: Diane M. Foley is the mother of five children, including American freelance conflict journalist James W. Foley. She founded the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation in September 2014, less than a month after his public execution. Diane is currently serving as the President and Executive Director of JWFLF. Since 2014, she has led JWFLF efforts to fund the start of Hostage U.S. and the international Alliance for a Culture of Safety, ACOS. In 2015, she actively participated in the National Counterterrorism Center hostage review which culminated in the Presidential Policy Directive-30. This directive re-organized U.S. efforts on behalf of Americans taken hostage abroad into an interagency Hostage Recovery Fusion Cell, Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs and a White Hostage Response Group. Previously, Diane worked first as a community health nurse and then as a family nurse practitioner for 18 years. She received both her undergraduate and master’s degrees from the University of New Hampshire in Durham, NH.
Sneak Peek into forthcoming book “The Bonfire of the Verities” Pathologies of Public Policy Decision-Making and How to Fix Them. About the Book: Recent times in America are scarred by rampant public policy failures, leading to catastrophic involvements in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the 2008 financial crash. More are coming. Why do highly intelligent leaders, with degrees from the world’s greatest universities, with equally intelligent and skilled staffs and with limitless research and intelligence budgets, continue to make catastrophic decisions–even while warned in advance of catastrophes to come? And what can actually be done to stop this sickness? This presentation, summarizing the forthcoming book’s analysis, draws lessons from America’s Vietnam experience and its involvement in the Middle East, from an innovative form of economic analysis, and from case studies of what has failed–and worked–in the areas of anti-corruption and anti-spam programs. The steps it proposes–the verities–offer a decision-making alternative which overcomes the current squishiness of political and economic discussions in which “there are no wrong answers and nothing is ever concluded.” About the Speaker: Jeffrey Race has an AB, AM, and PhD in Government from Harvard and began this project while an Ash Fellow of the Kennedy School. He has taught political science and economics, and is the author of the War Comes to Long An, a highly original case study of human motivation in the Vietnam War which Amazon lists as one of the top ten military theory studies of all time. In a parallel engineering career Race is a Life Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and in this talk brings to bear on the pathologies of public policy making the insights of hard science.
Title: National Security, Whistle-Blowers and the Nature of Secrecy This event is a part of the Global Impact Discussion Series by Founder and Moderator Patricia Schouker, IWP Alumna. About the Lecture: The significance of Edward Snowden’s revelations has been viewed primarily through the prism of threats to citizen privacy. Instead, Dr. Christopher Moran argues that the most dramatic change has been a decline of government secrecy, especially around national security. While the ethical aspects of state secrets and ‘whistle-blowing’ have received recent attention, few have attempted to explain the dynamics of this growing climate of exposure. The argument is largely technological and is grounded by the changing nature of intelligence work, which is increasingly merging with ‘big data’. Dr. Moran also identifies a related cultural change: many intelligence contractors are at best agnostic about the national security state. Meanwhile, the Internet itself provides the perfect medium for the anonymous degradation of secrets. Because the main driver is technology, Dr. Moran suggests this trend is likely to accelerate, presenting national security chiefs with one of their biggest future challenges. About the Speaker: Dr. Christopher R. Moran is a Reader in US National Security in the Department of Politics and International Studies (PAIS) at the University of Warwick (UK). He is the author of several books including Classified: Secrecy and the State in Modern Britain (Cambridge University Press, 2013) and Company Confessions: Secrets, Memoirs, and the CIA (St. Martin’s Press, 2016). Funded by the British Academy, he is currently writing a history of the turbulent relationship between President Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger, and the CIA, featuring new revelations about White House ‘dirty tricks’ as well as critical reflections on the role played by the Agency in facilitating SALT, American withdrawal from Vietnam, and triangular politics between the United States, the Soviet Union, and China. Together with colleagues from John Hopkins and Leicester University, he is the co-editor of the new ‘Georgetown Studies in the History of Intelligence’ book series.
About the Lecture: This lecture is a part of the 12th Annual Kościuszko Chair Conference that was held on November 23, 2019, at The Institute of World Politics. Rotamaster Witold Pilecki, a Polish intelligence operator who volunteered for Auschwitz, is presented by non-Polish authors as an ordinary man who was capable of a heroic deed in times of war. Mrs. Maria Juczewska examines the validity of that narration in view of evidence provided by scholarly research, archival material, and accounts of his close and kin. About the Speaker: Ms. Maria Juczewska is the Associate Director of the Kościuszko Chair of Polish Studies at The Institute of World Politics in Washington, DC.
About the Lecture: This lecture is a part of the 12th Annual Kościuszko Chair Conference that was held on November 23, 2019, at The Institute of World Politics. The Polish population suffered huge losses during WWII. Millions of soldiers and civilians were wounded and killed. Those who survived developed various ways to cope with the extreme situation they had to face during the war. These methods proved to be very useful in the first years after Soviet liberation in 1945, in the era of mass migrations and resettlements, but also in the times of Stalinist lawlessness and repression. These times will be presented on the basis of information contained in the diaries sent to three competitions for settlers in western Poland. The vast majority of these materials have not been published so far. About the Speaker: Dr. Jakub Isański is a Professor of Sociology at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland.
Title: The town of Pinsk, the gubernya of Minsk: On the Eve of the Great War About the Lecture: This lecture is a part of the 12th Annual Kościuszko Chair Conference that was held on November 23, 2019, at The Institute of World Politics. Dr. Chodakiewicz discussed the political, economic, social, and cultural situation in Pinsk and its environs. About the Speaker: Dr. Marek Chodakiewicz is a Professor of History at The Institute of World Politics and the Kościuszko Chair of Polish Studies.
About the Lecture: This lecture is a part of the 12th Annual Kościuszko Chair Conference that was held on November 23, 2019, at The Institute of World Politics. This year is the 100th anniversary of Herbert Hoover’s visit to Poland as head of the American Relief Administration: he went in Woodrow Wilson’s stead. The significance of the relief is still little-known in the Polish public consciousness, even among historians. It may have been one of the finest episodes in U.S.-Polish relations and is worthy of more recognition. About the Speaker: Mr. Nicholas Siekierski is a Ph.D. candidate at the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw, Poland.
About the Event: Our distinguished panelists will discuss the political stability and peace prospects, economic, social cohesion, and the way forward in Sudan in the post-revolution era now under a civilian government and the ongoing peace negotiations between the transitional government and the oppositions groups. About the Speakers: Niemat Ahmadi: A native of Kebkabiya, North Darfur region of Sudan, Ms. Ahmadi is the Founder and President of the DC-based Darfur Women Action Group DWAG, the organization that focuses on the empowerment of the Darfur genocide affected communities and the historically marginalized Sudanese to bring them to the center to participate in decisions making and to effectively contribute to shaping the future of Sudan. Previously, Ms. Ahmadi worked with NGO’s in various fields of emergency and development in Sudan, including Oxfam Great Britain, Intermediate Technology Development Group ( Practical Action) and the United Nation’s World Food Program. Ms. Ahmadi was recognized by President George W. Bush as one of 8 global human rights fighter of the year 2008. Ms. Ahmadi is a veteran human rights advocate and seasonal strategic planning and management professionals. Ms. Ahmadi previously worked as the Director of Global Partnerships for United to End Genocide and the Save Darfur Coalition. She served as an advisor at the 7th round of Inter-Sudanese Darfur peace talks in Abuja, Nigeria, in 2006. Hashem Mekki: Hashem Mekki, MA, has taught Arabic Language, Culture & Middle East Media at IWP since 2012. He is the owner of Bridge Language Solutions, providing an array of language translation, interpretation and teaching services to the Washington DC metropolitan area, and the founder of Kele Global, a nonprofit organization that promotes education, health, and economic empowerment in Sudan and the Republic of South Sudan. He also teaches Arabic language to federal employees & professionals at the National Nuclear Security Administration at the Department of Energy. Mr. Mekki volunteers with the IWP Center for Human Rights and International Affairs by providing Arabic translations & strategic cultural perspectives on North Africa and the Middle East. Mr. Mekki previously worked with the Center for Strategic and International Studies and served on the board of Voices of Sudan, a nonprofit based in Washington, D.C. He holds bachelor degrees in both Political Science and International Studies from the City College of New York, and a Master of Arts in Strategic Studies and International Politics from IWP.
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